Obama Plays Hardball

Today President Obama appealed to congress a plan to consolidate many federal business regulating and commerce agencies, including extending new presidential powers for the incorporation process.  Click here for story. 

The plan, according to the president, is designed partly to encourage more small business growth. It is one of several important proposals from Mr. Obama's 2011 State of the Union address.

The timing and message do not seem coincidental.  The administration's bipartisan attempts for long term economic stimulation  have been mediocre at best and current Republican presidential front runner Mitt Romney is slowly gaining momentum in national polls.

The president's strategic timing also puts the popular GOP's notion of Obama's big government policy failure to an applicable test.

Mr. Obama did not propose a series of big business tax cuts.  Instead he used a government focused cost cutting approach that Republican law makers have been asking for since he took office.

The White House also took a perceived aggressive and no-lose move.  Should Republicans agree and support the streamlining plan it will be major victory for the president's re-election campaign and Democratic law makers.  If not, congressional GOP's look more to blame for the poor economy, especially with the exponential rise in public corporate distrust and outrage.

The Obama re-election campaign, undecided voters and undecided moderates could be swayed by today's political game changing event come November, regardless of the eventual GOP nominee.

A Rational Hypothesis

A family member of mine has a radical solution to clean up big time college athletic programs.  Eliminate any and all athletics only based scholarships and adopt the NCAA Division III format.  This means no athletics based scholarships for any student-athlete.

His rationale is the idea that amateur student athletes and their full time, paid coaches actually put academics first and extracurricular activities, including but not exclusive to sports, second.

It's very much unlikely (if at all) NCAA big wigs will adopt the D-III model  for Division I and II sports.  However, it could eliminate big time college football, basketball, baseball and more recently soccer (MLS is the only soccer league that I know of that implementing an amateur draft) players from leaving school early for the professionals.  

Hypothetically speaking, removing sports scholarships would lead to more student-athletes finishing school with four-year degrees.  It may also make major drafts obsolete. Thus, creating the true student-athlete.

This Sports Illustrated story reported that Trent Richardson, Dre' Kirkpatrick and Dont'a Hightower declared for the 2012 NFL Draft, forgoing their senior seasons with BCS national champion Alabama Crimson Tide.

As of publish date and time of this post and according to this NFL draft website there are around 50 underclassmen (mostly juniors with a few sophomores) who have officially declared for the NFL draft.  Among those are Heisman Trophy winner Robert Griffin III from Baylor and potential top pick Andrew Luck from Stanford.

Stanford University, a traditional Pac-12 powerhouse, is widely considered the Harvard of California.  By leaving early and therefore not graduating, Luck throws away a chance to finish with a degree from a prestigious and internationally acclaimed university.

The worst possible scenarios for NFL prospects like Luck is the possibility of career ending injuries or a not at best a "never-was"-esque pro career.  Regardless, by not taking true advantage of a free or less expensive education Luck and other like him are just another college dropout.

Agents, coaches, university administrators and the NCAA all make millions as a result of the current scholarship and draft systems. Under the mostly exclusive year-by-year, renewable scholarships athletic departments and coaching staffs pick and choose which players will be retained on scholarship and which ones are revoked or cut. The results are numerous transfers and young students leaving school entirely either ending their academic career or trying the pros crap shoot.

If you disagree or agree with this blog's premise, click this.

Defense Arrives at UMSL

University of Missouri-St. Louis men's basketball recorded 10 wins during the first 13 games of their season.  Not only are the Tritons off to their best start in over 25 years, it also seems head coach Steve Tappmeyer's team, in his second season with UMSL, is playing more akin to his defense heavy system.

From an exclusively box score view the Tritons are shutting down the opposition.  They have not conceded more than 75 points in a single game  heading into their Great Lakes Valley Conference road swing through Indiana.  They will face GLVC East Division (arguably the stronger division with several nationally ranked squads) St. Joseph's and Indianapolis .  They also have won nine consecutive and are perfect (5-0) to start GLVC play.

Looking at the score lines and overall game statistics this Tritons team is a defensive coach's dream, at least at this point in the season.  UMSL opponents are averaging a shade over 62 points per game.  Whereas, UMSL is averaging over 11 more points per game against all opponents.

Last season, UMSL got off to a quick start as well, but were blanked in the league tournament's first round by Division II and GLVC powerhouse Kentucky Wesleyan.  The Methodist school out of Owensboro, Kentucky scored over 100 points against Tappmeyer's first season squad.

After the seemingly embarrassing loss Tappmeyer and his staff, assistants Luke Crump, Dale Ribble and Chico Jones, recruited several new players to fill holes from an inconsistent defense.

It's difficult for me to judge the style of Tappmeyer's 2011-2012 defensive schemes.  I have not had the chance to see the team live or in person.  Last season his defense was mostly a man to man with a mixture of some 2-3 and 3-2 zone.  He would press usually late in the game under desperation or on full court inbound.

I doubt his schemes have changed much.  I'm sure he's using a same half court or three-quarter court man to man defense.  But with the overnight changes final scores while holding all teams to such a low average, it is hard to believe that it was a defense philosophy change.

The long time and nationally renowned Division II coach (he was formerly the coach at D-II basketball and football power-house Northwest Missouri State) seems to have recruited players that fit into and understand his system- the intense, in your face and hard nosed shutdown man to man defense.

So needless to say when UMSL returns from a tougher Indiana Division II road test I will most likely attend their games against GLVC west division foes William-Jewell and Rockhurst to see the type of players and defensive sets the coaching staff is running.

Maybe if the old sports cliche holds (defense wins championships) UMSL can make a run in the GLVC and the NCAA tournaments.

Note: I have also started a YouTube Vlog page. Here is the link. There aren't many videos yet, but I will update them every few days.

Hillary Clinton or Joe Biden

Rumor has it that President Obama will replace Vice President Joe Biden with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as a running mate during the 2012 election.  The White House has denied any such allegations as mere rumor and exaggerated speculation.

My better half, a friend of mine and I discussed such a possibility, albeit rumor and speculation.  We all noticed that over the previous several months the well spoken (and the oft out spoken) President of the Senate seems rather quiet in the cable news and national media outlets.  Why is this?

My cohorts and I  agreed that we will believe it when concrete stories surface.  But my better half said something Democratic political strategist and campaigners have either considered or should very well consider, the true feminist vote.

We all remember John McCain's Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin, former Governor of Alaska.  The Palin experiment obviously failed for the GOP when Obama/Biden ticket won a historical election in November 2008.  Senator John McCain and his strategists (if they had any say in the matter) picked the exact opposite of what many American women see themselves.  Most women I know and love, either on both ends of the political spectrum, are more akin to an intellectual feminism.  Sarah Palin is the quintessential anti-(or counter-) feminist.

To find her more political, social and professional opposite in the cliche, "I am woman. Hear me roar," motif Hillary Clinton is the textbook example of a true modern, and maybe post-modern, feminist.  

I will not go into detail of her extensive political, legal or professional career.  We all know her maiden name, her family, her position in the Obama Administration's cabinet and her stance on issues ranging from feminism to international policy.  I will, however, speak of my own observations of Hillary R. Clinton's feminist demeanor- how she seems to be the envy of Sarah Palin, Michelle Bachman and other  GOP women politicians throughout America.

The only issue I will discuss illustrating and exemplifying Clinton's real feminism is reproductive health issues, i.e. Planned Parenthood, HPV vaccines etc.

Michelle Bachman has stated in several debates and news outlets that she is opposed to an HPV vaccine.  HPV is a virus that can cause cervical cancer through skin to skin contact.  When Bachman was asked if she is in favor of such a vaccine in a GOP debate, she cited the, "innocence," of young, teenage girls- that it is better to not allow teenagers and other young women a chance to prevent a serious and debilitating disease.

Bachman and other GOP conservatives assume that such a vaccine would promote promiscuity in young women.  Researchers have shown, though, that HPV is most likely spread through skin-to-skin contact.  There is a lot of academic debate as to whether or not the virus is strictly or mostly sexually transmitted.

It's hard for me to believe, although I have not seen any media or other evidence proving either way, that Secretary Clinton would in any way disapprove of such a vaccine or most any type of reproductive or sexual health measures.  

Secretary Clinton, the Obama Administration and many other progressive leaders are supporters of one of the best things to happen to reproductive and women's health- Planned Parenthood.  The mere mention of the non-profit, educational and reproductive and sexual health organisation makes most GOP's and conservatives cringe.  

Women's health issues and LGBT issues are only one aspect of Hillary Clinton's views that I find appealing.  But since former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney won in New Hampshire, and according to a recent Reuters poll only trails President Obama by less than 10 percent, the Obama/Clinton bid would be a deal breaker for many moderates.

Let's draw up a strictly hypothetical situation where the rumors and speculations end up becoming true.  Imagine, if only for a moment, that VP Joe Biden steps down at his position to give way to Hillary Clinton.  As a voter, and maybe one who leans more liberal than some, it is difficult for me to vote against an Obama/Clinton ticket over any GOP side.  

Golf coach under investigation for fraud

Two years ago I wrote an investigative piece on former University of Missouri- St. Louis golf coach Dustin Ashby.  During his tenure with UMSL, Ashby broke NCAA gambling rules while working as a part time, head men's golf coach when he hired three unnamed student-athletes to work for his company, Gridiron Fantasy Sports.  Click on this link for the story.

The Riverfront Times blog ran an article detailing Ashby's recent fraud investigation by the Missouri Attorney General's office here.

There are a few details of Ashby's business I remember when breaking the story for the The Current, UMSL's Student Newspaper.

As part of my reporting I tried calling and e-mailing Ashby's business and some of his associates several times.  The only response via e-mail I received was that he was no longer a public figure with UMSL.  After that e-mail a colleague and I drove to his office in Chesterfield, Missouri near the Chesterfield Airport.

The door to Ashby's Chesterfield office was locked and the windows were tinted so dark that my associate and I could not see inside.

A multi-million dollar gambling business, especially one featured on ESPN and in the Las Vegas gambling industry looked more like, both on paper and from closer inspection, a front for a poncy scheme.  At the time I was not privy to court documents or information regarding Ashby's financial records.  Without adequate, transparent information backed up by several sources I could not ask my editor (or any editor) to run a story regarding his businesses.

So when I read about the recent fraud investigation from the RFT blog I was not surprised.  I was also not surprised UMSL administrators tried to cover themselves after the NCAA sanctions.  While Ashby was the coach at UMSL his business was promising hundreds of thousands of dollars to would-be winners and holding drafts and other events in major Las Vegas hotels and casinos.

Discovering this information and the university's claims to the NCAA they did not know about Ashby's business seems far fetched, even for a starving and aspiring journalist like myself.

I'm sure the NCAA's investigation was thorough.  Ashby received a three-year show cause ban for lying and misleading investigators and UMSL athletics were placed on three years probation.  It's difficult for me to believe that when then UMSL athletic director Pat Dolan hired Ashby, a former UMSL student-athlete, they did not know he was running a multi-million dollar business, albeit an alleged poncy scheme.

UMSL has a long history of trying to get rid of supposed problems.  Look no further than this.

St. Louis freelance journalist looking to relocate for better opportunities.

Ninety percent of my life has been spent in St. Louis, Missouri.  A majority of it around the south side.  In my ever failing quest to find a writing job, or at least a decent job in general, my better half and I have decided that when she is finished with school we would like to high tail it out of here to greener pastures.


Last night, we (my fiance and confidant) decided the next city we should visit in hopes of relocating will be Tampa, Florida.  Tampa's cost of living according to recent data is about the same as St. Louis.  I have family in the area too, but they will not be the sole or deciding reason for us to move there.


Her chosen profession, or should I say what she will finish school with in May, is psychiatric nursing.  Mine is a little more complicated, if you believe psychiatric nursing is easy.  Writing and journalism.  The past year I have not been up to my full potential at my local university because of a chronic condition.  My writing and cognitive abilities suffered and, thus, my academic career did as well.


Now, I am currently on different and better medications that help me cognitively and allow me to be much more motivated than I had been the past year or so.  However, my search for freelance or temporary writing jobs in St. Louis city and county have come up dry.  No e-mails or letters have been returned even though my portfolio of sports journalism and investigative journalism is more than above par (I say this with modesty and humility because everyone I know says my talent for writing exceeds that of my peers).


All in all, I'm hoping that those of you who are looking for a talented and highly motivated reporter and/or sports journalist who can also double as investigative reporter, please leave me a comment on this blog.  


This blog will mostly be my opinion on national news and sports events.  Therefore, this type of post will mostly be atypical.